
Charlotte Cornfield joins the family & announces 'Highs in the Minuses' (out 10/29)
For our first ever co-release Polyvinyl & Double Double Whammy have teamed up to bring you Charlotte Cornfield's evocative new album, Highs in the Minuses, arriving October 29. The Canadian singer/songwriter & multi-instrumentalist's follow-up to her 2019 Polaris Music Prize-nominated record (The Shape of Your Name) has a rhythmic, poetic clarity that may devastate the heart or tickle the ribs in a simple turn of phrase.
The Toronto artist has also shared the first single from the album: "Headlines," a driving track with an earworm chorus that belies the anxiety permeating its lyrics. Of the song's accompanying video, Charlotte explains: “I wanted to express the joy of seeing people, of those little interactions that happen throughout the day that I missed so much in the last year and a half. When I wrote this song I was spending so much time walking alone through my neighbourhood, and I wanted the video to take place on the same streetscape but be the antidote to that solitude.” Watch below.
Though the songs of Highs in the Minuses are highly personal, Cornfield wanted their sonic quality to convey the communal, aleatoric energy of live performance. Channeling the spirit and working methods of Jason Molina, Neil Young, and Big Thief before her, she and the band allowed their psychic connection to convey the emotional interconnectedness that comes with stories of heartbreak, self-discovery, and new love. Cornfield (guitar, piano, vocals), bassist Alexandra Levy (Ada Lea) and drummer Liam O’Neill (Suuns) convened in Montreal at the studio of Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen). In just five days, with minimal takes and overdubs — and with contributions from guitarist Sam Gleason (Tim Baker) and Stars singer Amy Millan — they set Cornfield’s vivid mini-memoirs to an earthen folk-rock symphony. It ebbs and flows based on each song’s feeling: sturdy and buoyant in its jubilance and hope, and stripped back and vulnerable in its lonesomeness and pain. Pre-order a limited edition copy of Highs in the Minuses now on Half White & Cyan.